Happy Holidays?

The controversy over the wishing of happy holiday, or Merry Christmas still rages. We who are believers should wish a Merry Christmas. The reality is that both represent reference to religion and faith. Holiday comes from old English for Holy Day, which in history was the only times peasants and working men often were allowed off of work. In honor of Christian Holy days people would not work and celebrated with family and friends. The English still use the word holiday for special time off of work. Christmas of course means Christ Mass, or Christ worship if you will.

Whether you are Happy or Merry really doesn’t matter, because our real joy doesn’t come from the day off or from the big dinner. Real joy comes to our hearts when Jesus is there to take up residence. It is His coming to the world that we celebrate on Christmas. For those trying to push Him out we can see that it isn’t so easy to dismiss the Christ, even in a holiday greeting.

I personally prefer Merry Christmas, since it keeps Christ at the center. I encourage us all to love others this holiday season, and to worry less about the technical terms we use. Our real concern should be in keeping Jesus Christ in our hearts forever.